Washington, D.C. – This week, the House Ways and Means Committee unanimously passed Congressman Darin LaHood’s (IL-16) Electronic Filing and Payment Fairness Act out of committee. During the full committee markup, various pieces of legislation were considered to simplify tax administration and combat the unemployment insurance (UI) fraud crisis.
The Electronic Filing and Payment Fairness Act focuses on simplifying tax filing and payment processes for American families and small businesses. The legislation applies to the “mailbox rule” for documents and payments electronically submitted to the IRS—eliminating unnecessary late fees and administrative burdens for the nearly 90% of Americans who file their taxes electronically.
Click to watch Rep. LaHood’s full remarks from the committee markup
“This commonsense bill, which has been included in the National Taxpayers Advocate’s Purple Book of Legislative Recommendations, would simply amend the tax code to apply the ‘mailbox rule’ to electronic submissions of payments and documents to the IRS,” said Rep LaHood. “Under current law, if a taxpayer physically mails a payment or tax return to the IRS that is postmarked on the due date that payment or a tax return is considered timely, even if it was received a week later.”
“Congress has a duty to strengthen taxpayer rights by making it easy and fair for Americans to file their taxes,” said House Ways and Means Committee Chairman Jason Smith. “Representative LaHood’s bill, the Electronic Filing and Payment Fairness Act, will make filing simpler and ensure taxpayers are treated equally regardless if they file or make payments through the mail or online. I applaud Representative LaHood’s leadership in helping advance these commonsense, bipartisan reforms that will make dealing with the IRS easier for the American taxpayer.”
In addition to Rep. LaHood’s tax administration bill, the Ways and Means Committee considered four other pieces of legislation, including a bill aimed at strengthening enforcement of unemployment insurance fraud. As Chairman of the Ways and Means Work and Welfare Subcommittee, Rep. LaHood recently chaired a Work and Welfare Subcommittee hearing on prosecuting fraudsters for stealing billions in Covid-19 Pandemic unemployment benefits.
Witnesses at the hearing urged Congress to extend the statute of limitations, which is set to expire on March 27, 2025, beyond the initial five-year period for prosecuting those who committed unemployment insurance fraud. The expiration of the statute of limitations would prevent criminals from being brought to justice and public funds from being rightfully returned to taxpayers.
Additionally, it was highlighted at the hearing that many of these criminals responsible for stealing UI benefits previously are now stealing disaster benefits from those affected by the Los Angeles fires and North Carolina hurricane victims. Click to watch Rep. LaHood’s full opening remarks from the subcommittee hearing HERE.
At this week’s markup, the House Ways and Means Committee passed the Pandemic Unemployment Fraud Enforcement Act. This legislation extends the statute of limitations for combatting and prosecuting theft of COVID-19 unemployment benefits, gives law enforcement time to complete current cases, open new ones, and return billions of dollars to U.S. taxpayers.
Click to watch Rep. LaHood’s full remarks from the committee markup
“Last week, the Work and Welfare Subcommittee held a hearing on this issue and the implications of failing to act,” said Rep. LaHood. “Our witnesses made clear that extending the statute of limitations is critical to recovering these dollars. The same criminals that defrauded unemployment benefits are continuing to undermine critical programs that Americans rely on today, in times of need. During our hearing, one of our witnesses, Haywood Talcove of LexisNexis, told us, ‘the same groups doing the same thing are happening now,’ this time criminals are stealing disaster benefits owed to the Los Angeles fire and North Carolina hurricane victims.”
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